Red Heels and Smoking Guns
by TogetherSomewhere
Summary: Regina Kingsley shot and was shot by her now late husband Leopold Kingsley. FBI Agent Emma Swan arrives at the scene with her team and have to find out why the drama happened, but first need to make sure a now frantic and shocked Regina get's to the hospital in time and lives
1. Chapter 1

_**Hey there my lovely readers. This chapter is something I have had sitting around for months, and I decided to post it, now here is the catch, if you want this continued, please review. Because this story is a little problem for me, with if I want to actually make a second chapter or not. Ill leave this up a few weeks and see if I should do this or not I suppose…**_

 _ **Well, happy reading**_

 _ **x R.**_

 **a Smoking Gun**

Regina looked around, trying to understand any of the words the policemen were saying, but all that she was able to hear was a persistent ringing in her ears. She didn't even know she was crying until the tears were rolling over her lips, that still had her red lipstick to cover them.

Her mascara was definitely ruined by now but that didn't matter. Her whole appearance was ruined, her expensive Gucci dress covered in blood and the ends were torn and dirty, but that didn't matter either. The weight of the gun in her hand felt so incredibly heavy, almost too heavy to bear.

Her knees were begging to give out from under her, her whole body trembling, but nothing really came through to her. Not even her body's signals.

The sound of the gunshot and the ringing were plaguing her brain, tormenting her ears, that were begging for a blessed silence.

Not that she would be getting that now, oh no, not with policemen that seemed to be shouting words at her, throwing glances at each other. Police cars with sirens that were probably blaring, but she could hear a thing of that. No.

Just now she noticed she hadn't even drawn in a breath in while, probably not since she shot the gun... Probably.

Dizziness took over as she struggled to draw in a breath that her body didn't allow her to draw.

She hadn't even realised that the blood that was covering her dress wasn't all his. Because the pain of the gunshot wound in her shoulder wasn't prominent enough to even notice yet.

That she didn't notice the wound, didn't mean that the blonde policewoman didn't notice. No, she felt worry for her, because she had been calling her, together with Ruby Lucas and Will Scarlet, her colleagues.

She just didn't seem to hear them. It was as if she was in a trance, the gun hanging limply in her right hand, her whole body looked like it was trembling, but after an ordeal like that, that was only logical of course.

"Madam, please drop the gun and let us help you." She called out again in the hope that she would hear. That she would listen to her this time around, but failed again.

She saw the blonde's mouth move again, her green eyes filled with some emotion she couldn't decipher right at this moment, her whole mind just too messed up.

Sobs were racking her body before she noticed they were doing so, and with that her right hand lost the strength to even hold the gun and let it slide.

She heard it clatter to the ground but nothing else again. The clatter drowning out all the other sounds.

It seemed like the policemen now finally dared to approach her since she was now unarmed and not dangerous to them. And they picked up the gun that was smeared with blood, his blood, her blood...

She felt someone touch her unwounded shoulder, and that was what startled her out of her daze. She flinched at the touch, because a touch in her book had been to harm her for the last six years. A gentle touch wasn't something she was used to, so this touch just felt alien. It felt wrong somehow. At the same time though, it somehow felt right.

"Madam, you're hurt please follow me to the ambulance." A morphed voice sounded in her left ear, the same side as the hand resting on her shoulder.

The ringing, god the ringing. It didn't stop. It still hadn't stopped. Not since the first gunshot was fired. Not since his body fell to the ground.

She was led to the ambulance by the morphed voice and the hand on her shoulder. She was gently pushed down so she would sit down, and give the paramedics a chance to investigate the wound in her right shoulder. Just then, a tingling of pain rushed through her body. Just then, she finally realised his bullet had hit her as well. It wasn't just hers that hit its intended target, he had done as well.

Not that she wanted this, no, no of course she didn't want this. Who would want this?

But still, her hit was more effective, she supposed.

Again she didn't hear the policewoman talking until she touched her, which of course made her flinch. She looked up at her terrified, the ringing in her head now finally stopped, a blissful silence taking over, voices sounding morphed and inaudible. Not that she wanted to talk to anyone really, not after this ordeal. She needed some time to process this, she really, really did. Because well, a thing like this would not in any way happen daily to a person. Most of the time it didn't happen at all.

"...-pened?" She could finally make out some of the words the policewoman was saying to her and she furrowed her brow.

"What?" She asked, her voice sounding pathetically weak, if mother would hear her now...

"I asked what happened." The woman said, happy the other woman finally responded after thirty minutes of clinging to the blanket that was wrapped around her by one of the paramedics. another twenty minutes passed before there suddenly came a response

"I think you perfectly well know what happened, and if not. You're the police, you figure it out." She said, happy her brain was working again, well for speaking anyway, thinking back to what actually happened... She didn't even want to.

The policewoman furrowed her brow at this. It seemed like the woman had some sort of defence mechanism. Trying not to talk about what happened, because she probably couldn't handle it. In her years with the FBI she had seen this behaviour before. And she got it, the woman went through something horrible after all, if the bruises and the cuts on her body were anything to go by, and of course the gunshot wound in her shoulder. Maybe she should back off for now.

"Alright, you will be taken to the hospital, so that they can check you out for more injuries." She said calmly and finally retreated her hand from the tense woman's shoulder.

It seemed like she had suddenly lost her tongue, for instead of answering verbally, she just nodded and retreated back into herself again. Her thoughts trailing off into somewhere far into her mind, somewhere the policewoman couldn't even get to anymore, for anything she tried to say to her got lost into the void she had created between her and the outside world.

"Mary, Ashley, please make sure she gets thoroughly checked out, I suspect there are more serious injuries than just the gunshot wound." The policewoman said and the two paramedics nodded before putting Regina further into the ambulance and driving off towards the hospital. Now it was time to see what actually had happened in the Kingsley's resident. Because this was a far from simple case. No this would be something that would probably drag on, or well, that was what her gut was telling her right now.

Regina was rushed to the hospital, blood loss already getting close to the edge of fatal and it seemed like there were other injuries on the brunette as well.

The raven haired widow was unconscious when they reached the hospital, and thus didn't obstruct the checks they did. What the paramedics found out shocked them rather badly, because they hadn't expected a woman like this to be covered in so many bruises, burns and cuts.

They cut away the grimy, torn up dress, that must have cost a fortune to fully treat the wounds, some were even beginning to infect or already infected.

Curious as Ashley and Mary were, they looked into previous records of this woman, looking for how many times she had been committed to the hospital with injuries like this. The result made them feel so bad for the woman they actually got tears in their eyes.

. . . .

Ten days later Regina woke up from a medically induced coma, bright white lights shining in her sterile hospital room, with the steady beeping of a heart monitor that was probably located right next to her. for a fleeting moment she actually felt at peace, maybe she even dared to say safe, since Leopold surely would not be able to do something now.

The beeping for the heart monitor sped up and became erratic when Regina recounted what had happened to her, what had actually passed and what the consequences were going to be for her. She killed him. She shot him. The sound of the gunshot and the clattering of the gun when it hit the ground returning to her and making panic pool inside of her.

She would surely go to jail. Maybe even be sentenced to death for what she had done to him. God why had she picked up that gun? Why hadn't she just given up and let him shoot her, make her misery and pain end by one simple shot. One simple bullet that would pierce her heart and make blood and oxygen stop being pumped around in her whole system, making her body fail and die. Why couldn't that have happened? Why was she so damned stupid?

"Ma'am! Ma'am, please calm down!" She heard someone yell, but she was too far gone, panic gripping at her throat, making breathing an impossible feat, the heart monitor sounded like it was going so fast it would give up counting her erratic heart beats at any second now. Black spots floated into her vision, her whole body grew painful, and as heavy as lead at the same time, begging her to just give up, and let go. To let go and give up this fight she she wouldn't be able to win anyway, a fight that was fruitless, for if she did win, she would wake up to a miserable life. A life where she would be seen as a killer. someone so heartless that she shot her husband.

"Her heart... Failing…. Clear!" Was what she could make out before everything grew dark and she was plunged into a painful darkness. It felt cold. Ice cold. Like all the life had been sucked out. A place completely devoid of any sound, any life, just this never ending black kind of world.

was this what death was? A great black void of nothing? maybe this was hell? Was this the end, the terrible thing all people hoped never to meet?

Just then, it was like a new surge of energy was blown through her whole body, and she gasped to breathe in a new breath. Like it was the first breath she had ever drawn, almost like it would be the last one as well is she didn't soon take the chance of drawing it.

Her eyes shot open as the doctors all exclaimed their surprises. Regina Mills had been declared dead just a minute before she came back to life. The doctors quickly made sure she was hooked up to all the instruments needed again and they transported her to the ICU and let her sleep out the effects of the anesthetics. Regina Mills, Former Regina Kingsley, woke up after a ten day long coma she had been submitted into when she had shot her husband, Leopold Kingsley, and killed him.

 **I really hope you liked this, and please do review if this should be continued or not! It would really help a lot!**


	2. Reminiscent Moments

_**To the guest that commented on my use of their last name Kingsley, it is the name I always use during RPs and everything for them and with all my other stories I have written or am writing, and I have probably never read your Fanfiction, and mind you, I wrote this several months ago, probably about five. Since you commented as guest, I am saddened that you couldn't just use your real username, but here is my answer, I won't change it, many people have probably come up with that name as well since it is just a logical thing to connect King Leopold to. I apologize if you were offended in anyway by my mind coming up with this logical connection but you don't own the name Kingsley, it isn't a username that just one person is allowed to use.**_

 _ **Thanks for all the super kind reviews though3 LOVE YOU**_

 _ **(TRIGGER WARNING, MARITAL RAPE MENTIONED IN THIS CHAPTER)**_

 _ **I have no beta and I wrote this yesterday night at 2 am so all mistakes are mine**_

 _ **Now let's get on with the second chapter shall we?**_

 _ **Happy reading my darlings!**_

 _ **X R.**_

Regina looked around her as she felt dazed. Wasn't she supposed to be dead right now. In that black lifeless room with nothing but a void of silence and darkness. But instead she was in the hospital bed. Her shoulder hurting like hell, her whole body hurt actually, the cuts and burns screaming at her in pain, calling out to her how scratchy the sheets and hospital gown really were.

Regina then, just like the last time she woke, reality slapped her hard in the face as she once again realized what she had done. What had happened and then came to wonder about what would happen next. Would she be trialed for his murder and be locked up for life. She would certainly rot away in that prison, or be killed when she would be viewed as weak maybe.

 _Nine Years Ago_

"Mother please, I don't want to get married to someone that is thirty years older than I am, I want to marry for lov-" A nineteen-year-old Regina was slapped hard across the cheek before she was even able to finish her sentence and was met with a furious mother staring her down.

"My _dear_ little child, he is wealthy and powerful, and he is looking for a wife, something young to keep him entertained, so that is exactly what you will be doing. You have to forget those stupid notions of love, because they are false. There is no such thing as love for us, that is meant for privileged people that have the money for it. We don't, so you keep your mouth shut, put on a smile on and accept that this is the fate that was chosen for you." Her mother said as she held her chin in ice cold fingers that never meant anything but agony and pain. Since Regina didn't want to cause any more trouble for herself she obediently nodded and kept her mouth shut as she did, not wanting to leave her mother without an answer.

"Good girl. Now go and make sure that that bruise that is forming on your cheek is properly covered before Mr. Kingsley arrives in an hour to take you dress shopping, and Remember…"

"Do everything he wants, and keep my smart little mouth shut, yes I know mother, I will. I'll be good, I promise." Regina said softly before she disappeared into her bedroom and started to work on a perfect layer of makeup that would hide any imperfections on her skin, Her mother always told her that her looks were the only positive thing about her and that she should always make sure that that looked impeccable. Not that her mother ever complimented her when she did see something worthwhile, no it was always that this one little hair wasn't in place, or that her makeup wasn't correctly applied and some bruises were still visible. She wished that perhaps just for once there would be something positive, something to make her mother proud of…

An hour later the doorbell chimed, and it was like the sound resounded in her bones and made her whole body tremble. She had never met her husband to be before now, and he would immediately have the right to boss her around… The only thing she could hope was that Mr. Kingsley was a kind man. She realised just now that she didn't even know his name, her mother just kept calling him Mr. Kingsley, little did she know that the first time she would ever learn the name of her husband to be, was on the wedding day itself.

She went downstairs only when her mother ordered her to, like she was taught to, and she graciously greeted Mr. Kingsley as if he were a king, like she was taught to. He smiled at her with a predatory look and she immediately knew her fate was a horrible one that had been sealed. But it had been decided, so she couldn't turn back now. It was impossible to do so really.

Two hours later they returned and Regina felt so immensely dirty that after her future husband had left and her mother had dismissed her, she took an hour long shower in which she rubbed her skin raw.

His eyes alone had made her feel terrible and had made her stomach churn. The whole time she had been ordered around to fit dress after dress, all form fitting, one more showing than the other, and with every dress he licked his lips almost possessively before he would sip at the wine he had been offered.

The more he drank, the less he was able to hide how much he wanted her young body all to himself, and she was completely disgusted by it. If the saleswoman had even noticed it, she had kept her mouth shut because she just kept on coming with dresses that Regina all loathed.

In the end they had chosen a seventeen thousand dollar dress that was so tightly wound around her body she could barely breath, let alone move, But it had made her breasts look better and it had showed off everything Mr. Kingsley would own after the wedding, so he had bought it for her.

 _Back To Present_

Regina gasped for some calming breaths again when instead of a nurse rushing in a blonde FBI woman casually strolled into the room, but worry was etched into the features of the woman, worry and pity that shone clearly in the emerald green eyes of the blonde. Pity, god she was disgusted by that. She didn't want pity, she hated pity, it made her feel so useless, like a victim...

"Regina Mills, I am Special Agent Swan, I'm here to investigate the murder of Leopold Kingsley, and your involvement in it." She said as she sat down, and immediately Emma regretted the words she had said for Regina seemed to be unable to breathe.

When Regina heard the words murder her throat stopped working and it felt like her lungs collapsed, her heart monitor sped up again as she started to panic. Her heart raced, her head pounded, and oxygen wasn't being delivered to the parts of her body that were craving it as alarms started again, just like the last time she woke.

"What the hell?! Agent, didn't I tell you that our patient is far from ready for any of your questions! She has already suffered through one almost fatal heart attack, we don't want to give her another!" A furious doctor called out to the blonde woman as she was ushered out of the room so that Regina could be helped before her heart decided to stop for good this time.

"Doctor I need to question her, Yes I should have been more tactful, but I need to have her side of the story, and not just what we have now, because I'm sure that neither of us think that that woman in there would have committed a murder by choice. If I don't get her story she will go straight to jail once she is cleared from the hospital." Emma said in a low, hushed tone, because she didn't need unwanted ears to hear this information.

The media was all over the story of the big and mighty Leopold Kingsley being murdered and his wife, well widow, in a coma in the hospital. Luckily they didn't know she was awake just yet, and she would love to keep to that way. She didn't need journalists sneaking into the hospital and trying to get the new scoop before all the others did, and thus possible endangering an evidence she could use during the court case that would take place as soon as Regina was fired from the hospital.

Regina saw all kinds of people suddenly bustling around her, but was relieved to see that is wasn't the blonde FBI agent, because she wasn't sure she could actually survive it if anyone were to bring up the repercussions of what had transpired days ago. She knew she would be thrown into prison, her mother would see to that, because that was probably the punishment she would be receiving for what she had done. She had killed the income of her mother, and thus would force her mother to have to do something for her money again after almost a decade of being provided for by the husband of her daughter.

"Madam, could you please state your name and age so we can see if you don't have amnesia?" A nurse asked in a soothing voice that sounded as smooth as silk and that seemed to calm her down, but then it calmed every bit of her body, not just her mind. The nurse looked like she wouldn't ever hurt a soul and truly loved her job.

Regina opened her mouth to speak and say her name, but the only thing that came out was a ragged wheezing sound as pain pulsed from her throat through her body.

The nurse furrowed her brow and reached a hand out to put it comfortingly on her arm, a touch that would only be meant to soothe, but Regina flinched away from it with wide eyes and breathing that started to become uneven again, just after having been calmed down. So, the nurse retreated her hand with a soft sigh. "We're only here to help you Regina, nobody here wants to hurt you, you're safe here." She said in that soft soothing voice again and Regina swallowed hard as she softly nodded, indicating that she understood. "Regina, you will be left alone to rest now, but tomorrow you will have to talk to the FBI lady, if you want I could stay with you during the questions so you won't be all alone? I'm Marian by the way." She nurse said.

Regina thought it over before she slowly nodded again. She didn't want to be left alone with someone that could send her to jail. She didn't want to be left alone with such a dominating presence as well, it was like the oxygen level went down when the FBI agent had walked into the room and she knew what those kind of presences could mean by now. She wasn't sure she could handle that again.

"Okay, then I will be there at your side to make sure all goes well." Marian said and flashed Regina a soft smile before she left the room and Regina was suddenly all alone again.

 _Nine Years Ago_

 _"I now pronounce you, husband and wife. You may kiss the bride."_ Those words were her undoing, it seemed, when two old, wrinkly, and incredibly smelly lips were closing in on her and soon were pressed against her plum one's that had been painted a far too bold red colour for her taste, but it suited the dress and thus she had to wear it, it seemed. The breath that was suddenly against her lips was foul and had the stench of alcohol. the scratch of a few days old bear prickled her smooth skin and she wanted to claw at the face close to hers until it would leave her alone.

The wedding night was even more horrible, because now the old man was allowed to play with its toy like he had wanted to from the moment he had laid eyes upon her. The much too tight dress was quickly pulled off of her young and lithe body, and suddenly she wished that she was still wearing the thing with l that she had in her. Suddenly the dress seemed like her saviour from what was about to happen.

His calloused hands ran over her body as they threw her onto the bed that suddenly didn't seem big enough for her to escape it, to escape this. She had never done anything close to this before, especially not with a man.

She didn't like men, was never attracted to them at all. Women however… oh god yes women were these beautiful creatures she was sure that were divine. They had to be to look that wonderful. Her mother didn't approve of that of course, it was a terribly sinful thing, it was horrible to like someone of the same sex, and that was why her mother was set on keeping her away from women and picked out a partner for her that Cora herself would benefit from as well.

Suddenly her oxygen was stolen as a far too big and calloused hand closed around her throat and she gasped out for air, only to turn that gasp into a cry of pain when she felt him penetrate her. She was the complete opposite of wet and since she was a virgin she had never, ever done this.

It was hell. She was sure that this was hell. He almost strangled her as she kept screaming out in pain while he kept going. He grunted and put his weight on top of her rather frail body as he kept going. It seemed to take hours and hours as she screamed her throat dry and hoarse, until only silent creams left her lis and tears rolled down her cheeks as her body trembled. he kept going though, until he groaned out and she felt a disgusting warm and sticky substance being released by him that she wished he wouldn't have. When he was done he looked her over with a perverted look, smiled smugly and then rolled off of her to fall asleep on one half of the bed.

She herself couldn't be off of the bed fast enough as tears streamed down her face and she rushed to the bathroom that was connected to the bedroom and she emptied her stomach there. She felt so incredibly filthy, she must have showered for almost two hours and scrubbed her skin until it was almost bleeding. she just prayed to whatever deity out there in the universe that she would never, ever get pregnant with him. She would be ruined if she ever would carry his child.

 _ **Ookay so I decided that yes this story will be continued, and having this many stories going will definitely be the death of me, but what the heck why not. I even have a sort of SQ Star Wars thing in mind to write so yeah, oops! Anywayssss PLEASE review, they do fuel my writing, and if you want to critique my writing please log in to do so, so I can respond with a PM :)**_


	3. Bird Set Free

**_Hey, so I have been gone for far, far ,far too long, but I am back now and I hope that school will allow for me to write more for my lovely readers._**

 ** _This chapter I had lredy written a few weeks ago, but then it got deleted by a mistake of my father who thought he could empty my whole word document to use it for himself, because that I logical of course….and I had to rewrite the whole thing. Anyways, it's here now._**

 ** _Enjoy!_**

 ** _x._**

* * *

 _Clipped wings, I was a broken thing_  
 _Had a voice, had a voice but I could not sing_  
 _You would wind me down_  
 _I struggled on the ground_  
 _So lost, the line had been crossed_  
 _Had a voice, had a voice but I could not talk_  
 _You held me down_  
 _I struggle to fly now_

 _I shout it out like a bird set free_

 _\- Sia_

* * *

'Hello again, As you might have remembered from the last time, I'm Agent Swan, and I'm here to ask you some questions. Please keep in mind that none of these answers will condemn you in any way, we would just like to know what exactly happened on the night of May 14th.' Emma asked and she looked at the woman in the bed that first looked at the relaxed looking nurse in the corner of the room before she looked back at Emma and she swallowed thickly.

'A-after a night of heavy drinking Leo came home and demanded that I do my wifely duty, but this time I resisted which I shouldn't have because suddenly he had a gun, I don't even know where he had retrieved it from, I think I was a bit dazed from the adrenaline I had gotten from refusing to, and-'

'I'm sorry, but with wifely duty, you mean having sex?'

'Yes.' Regina said impatiently. Did the police woman want her statement or not?!

'Why not call it having sex?'

'Well because ever since I was married off, it was said that this was my duty as wife to pleasure him even if I didn't want to. I was forced to I suppose, but that's normal isn't it?'

At that answer Emma felt her stomach churn.

 _Regina was pacing in the living room. Her nervous hands were trembling as they fiddled with the gold wedding band around her ring finger and she felt bile rise in her throat as she thought again about the first time that she had been forced into her marital duty. She had been married for a whole of three weeks._

 _That had been twenty one nights of pain and screaming for mercy. Screaming for him to stop. He didn't. not until he was done using her body. She needed to produce children of course. That was her sole purpose now._

 _That and being a pretty brunette distraction. A jewel on his arm when she was taken out to dinners with him. Something other people could marvel at._

 _There were always many murmurs and whispered words when they saw him enter with the young thing she was at eighteen._

 _In three week she had already been taken to four dinner parties, and all four times she was either seen as a gold digger,_ That wasn't something she was, her mother was the gold digger, _or she was just seen as a nice object to stare at. Perverse stares from other old men were something she was getting used to._

 _It wasn't hard to get used to as she had one perverse stare almost always on her._

 _She looked out of the window and saw the sun rise. Rising red in the dawn of the morning. The colours of the sky calmed her in a way. She might not be free anymore, but this always gave her a sense of freedom._

 _Sometimes she wished she was a bird. A bird that could escape the cruel cage she was in now and fly away into the red, rising dawn. Fly away and only be a black silhouette in the distance one would wonder at._

 _But she was no bird, and this wasn't a cage she could escape. This was a prison she was locked into without being able to escape._

 _Two weeks ago she had just gone for a jog in the morning, like she always did to keep a little fit. Keep her lithe figure. When she had gotten back sweaty and tired and in desperate need of a shower she was met with a furious Leopold._

 _'_ _Where the hell did you go' He had screamed. 'Why did you leave without permission.' He had growled while he had started to rip off her clothes while yanking her upstairs._

 _She had cried as he had taken her against a wall of their bedroom._

 _She looked at the now almost healed, brown-ish coloured bruises on her body from that morning._

 _She had been taught the consequences of her disobedience. She would just have to be more careful about it next time._

'Hello Miss Mills?' Emma asked for the tenth time, this time a little more urgent as she put a hand on the arm of the woman.

Regina flinched away and for a moment fear flashed in her brown eyes before she swallowed hard and regained herself. 'don't touch me.' She muttered and then put a carefully crafted mask bac on. One he had worked on for years, and had now perfected.

'I apologize, but you didn't respond to me for almost ten full minutes.' Emma said carefully and looked at the response Regina would give her. At the emotions that would ne swirling in eyes that showed every single thing the woman opposite her was feeling even if the rest of the face didn't.

It was such an almighty force that was pushing her under. Drowning her in her memories. The sounds, the shouts in them getting louder and louder again, filling her head up with just that. Only that. She didn't even hear what the police woman was saying. Louder and louder still and she could hardly bear them.

She looked at the blonde police woman and pushed them down.

'I was got lost in some old memories. What was your last question again?' Regina asked and she succeeded in ignoring more of her memories

'I asked what you meant with married off. Forced marriages aren't strictly legal in this part of the world.' Emma said and looked down at the notebook she had in her hands and at the scribbles she had made on it. They were loose words that didn't connect any normal sentence together. No normal person except Emma would understand them.

But even to her it made little to no sense, because this woman. This enigma of a woman made only a nihil bit of sense.

'Mother chose someone suitable for me. She didn't like that I was attracted to just women, so she chose a man for me and mad me marry him. I hadn't a say in it.' Regina rattled off like she had told herself so many times, and then she added the usual part. 'mother wanted what was best for me.' She almost whispers. Trying to convince herself.

'Your mother chose the person you were to marry? Why didn't you leave. You were eighteen were you not?' Emma asks confused.

'No. I was not allowed to leave, so I didn't. I knew the consequences would be grave if I would have. I'd either be shunned or beaten until I wouldn't even dare think of leaving again.' Regina said detached. Not wanting to remember the things her mother had done to her to make her as obedient as she had been when she was that age.

'beaten?' Emma asked and swallowed hard. She had handled situations like this a few times before now, but to hear a grown woman talk about her mother with fear in her eyes was a different thing.

In the file of Regina she had read that both parents were dead. Her father at age five, her mother at age twenty six. Her mother had only passed away last year. Perhaps that is why Regina had grown bolder towards her husband?

The record had also shown only weeks after the death of the mother, that Regina herself had been admitted more and more often to the hospital with grave injuries. The reasons for them always the typical, traditional excuses for marital abuse that almost every cop and nurse knew.

Were the graver injuries for more acting up? Or had the husband just decided that without a watchful eyes of the mother, he could do to his bride as he wished?

Emma could only guess.

Regina didn't answer when for the first time during the interview her eyes flickered to the nurse and the woman got the message as she came and sat on the bed with Regina. The nurse seemed to calm her a bit more somehow. Were they in a relationship? Unlikely. But possible, Regina had told Emma that she preferred women.

'the patient has had too much stress for her heart in this condition, perhaps you cn come around tomorrow again?' the nurse, Marian Willow if the card with her name on it was correct, asked her and only then did Emma realise Regina was trembling again.

That the heart monitor was rising in speed and that her eyes were glazed over, miles and miles away from this conversation once more.

'Yes, of course.' Emma said and got her things and left. She felt rather sorry for what that woman had been through in her twenty seven years of life.

'Regina? Regina she is gone. You are safe in the hospital with us.' Marian said softly as she tried to bring the woman back to her. She knew touching her would help her out of her daze, but would also make her jump away in fear. Make the distrust in the woman grow even bigger than it already was.

Regina felt a touch on her shoulder as she gasped and flinched away. 'Don't touch me.' She hissed and looked furiously at the person that touched her.

The nurse held her hands up in surrender and apologized.

'Thank you for not leaving me alone.' Regina murmured softly after long, drawn minutes of silence. There was something soothing about the calm presence of the woman.

'Not a problem Regina. I told you I would happily do it for you, if it would make you feel more comfortable.'

'You should probably return to your husband and child now. You normally don't work past nine, right?' Regina asked trying to change the subject of the conversation. She didn't like thanking someone. Neither did she like being the subject discussed in a conversation.

Most of the times it was only to be negative, which was not something she felt like listening to anymore now. Not when she had broken out of her prison. Out of her cage.

She had killed her husband.

She was a bird set free from her nine-year-long cage.


End file.
